Hayley Matthews: Rock, star

Mumbai, March 6

Mumbai Indians cruised to their second consecutive win in the Women’s Premier League today with a comprehensive nine-wicket victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Chasing 156, an all-round show from Hayley Matthews helped Mumbai Indians to consolidate their position at the top of the WPL points table. The West Indian picked up three wickets and completed a fine all-round show by scoring a 38-ball 77.

Mumbai Indians, who won the first game by 143 runs against Gujarat Giants, now have four points from two matches with a net run-rate (NRR) of 5.185.

Matthews yet again forged a defining partnership with England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt as the two right-handed batters hammered the RCB bowlers all over the park to put on an unbeaten 114-run stand for the second wicket.

I think batting was the same, the bowling we did was better in the first game (against Gujarat) than today. We still did well to keep them to small score. We just wanted to back ourselves and chase. Everyone is just happy to do it their way and they’re enjoying themselves. Harmanpreet Kaur, MI captain

If Matthews produced an all-round show to power Mumbai Indians to their second win, the uncapped Saika Ishaque impressed once again by grabbing two wickets and taking her tally in the tournament to six.

Sciver-Brunt, who couldn’t get a good start in the opening game, made up for the disappointment on Monday by cracking an unbeaten 55 off 29 balls which was studded with 10 fours and a six.

We would have loved to put up a better performance. We were below par. There were two-three batters getting 20-30 runs, a few including me couldn’t put up a good score. It’s a pretty short tournament, we can’t dwell on it. In franchise cricket, even after two losses we can turn it around quickly. Smriti Mandhana, RCB skipper

Player of the Match Matthews seemed to have picked up from where she left off at the DY Patil Stadium the other night, playing her strokes with power, precision and command.

Matthews hammered 13 boundaries and a six in her knock, which came after she returned superb bowling figures of 4-0-28-3. She accounted for crucial wickets of RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana, Heather Knight and Richa Ghosh. Matthews might have taken her fourth wicket in her final over but Renuka Thakur hit the ball really hard for the bowler to take the return catch.

The only breakthrough for RCB came in the fifth over when Preeti Bose trapped Yastika Bhatia in front of the wickets for 23 off 19 balls.

Earlier, RCB fought back with useful contributions from their lower-order as they recovered from a batting collapse to reach 155 in 18.4 overs.

Brief scores: RCB: 155 all out in 18.4 overs (Ghosh 28; Matthews 3/28); MI: 159/1 in 14.2 overs (Matthews 77*, Sciver-Brunt 55*).